


Horror Movie Ficlets

by DragonSorceress22, solomonara



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One-Shot, but one from each of us, established kaishin, horror movies, ok maybe a two-shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 15:24:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5545064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So which do you think loves horror movies and which is actually terrified of them?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Night the Amygdala Won

**Author's Note:**

> "So which do you think loves horror movies and which is actually terrified of them?"  
> As it turns out, the two of us had differing opinions on this. So here are two different fics, in no particular order. You may guess which is whose.

The Night the Amygdala Won

 

"We're watching _The Ring_?" Shinichi asked, eyeing Kaito warily. The wariness wasn't because of his choice in movie. It was because Kaito was making popcorn. On the stovetop. Shinichi always watched carefully when Kaito was near any sort of exploding thing, even if it was edible. "I thought you said tonight was a research night."

"This _is_ research," Kaito said. "Horror movies have some of the best special effects - especially practical effects. If nothing else, it'll be good inspiration." He grinned broadly and it was _probably_ a coincidence that the popcorn started pinging against the sides of the pan at that moment. " _Ring_ was great. We'll see if _The Ring_ measures up."

"If you say so," Shinichi said.

"I do," Kaito said happily, dumping the now-popped popcorn into a bowl. Thinking it was probably safe to look away now, Shinichi headed for the couch. He supposed it was no more than he deserved, then, when Kaito turned up with a bowlful of popcorn utterly drenched in butter and liberally sprinkled with M&Ms.

Kaito snuggled down into the couch as close as possible to Shinichi without actually being in his lap and insinuated himself under Shinichi's arm before hitting play. It crossed Shinichi's mind briefly that the horror movie might be just an excuse, but he dismissed the thought almost immediately; after all, Kaito had never needed an excuse to get clingy. He absently ate an M&M and settled in to watch the movie.

 

_Some time later..._

"Does this kid seem a little too... together to you?"

Kaito craned his head around to raise his eyebrows as slowly as possible at Shinichi, who muttered "Never mind..."

 

_Later still..._

"Are you seriously telling me she'll believe in a cursed video tape, but a psychic child is where she draws the line?"

"Shinichi..."

 

_Yet later..._

"Doesn't a serial killer tracking the video tape make way more sense than a vengeful spirit?"

"Will you just watch the movie?!"

 

_And later..._

"Oh come ON! Look! The teeth in that skull are perfect! We know Samara had a gap in--"

Kaito flopped to the side and buried his face in a pillow.

"It can't be her," Shinichi continued. "Plus I'm pretty sure that's an adult skull. Tell me that's a plot twist later."

"It's a plot twist later," Kaito said, his voice muffled by the pillow. Shinichi threw another pillow at him for lying.

 

_And when all was said and done..._

"So... when you said this was for research..." Shinichi said as the credits rolled. "You're not, like, planning on scaring the task force to death, are you?"

"Very funny," Kaito replied. "Sadly, there wasn't much in this movie to draw on... I think the original was better. It had a lower budget but I think it was actually scarier. Forced them to be more creative," he mused.

"I don't think you need to worry about stepping up your creativity," Shinichi said. "You practically have it coming out your ears. You've come up with way more impressive stuff than anything in that movie."

"Flatterer," Kaito said, though he sounded pleased. He was stretched out on the couch, his feet in Shinichi's lap, and Shinichi smiled down at him. Then he yawned wide enough to crack his jaw. Kaito grinned and got to his feet, stretching languorously. "I agree," he said. "Bedtime."

 

Kaito fell asleep almost as soon as he crawled into bed, but Shinichi suddenly found himself quite awake. The room was dead dark, and silent. Kaito was sleeping on his side, his back to Shinichi's chest. Shinichi blinked in the darkness, willing his eyes to adjust. The back of his neck was prickling. He rolled, putting his back to Kaito's, and pulled the blanket up to cover his shoulders. That was better. He closed his eyes, trying to relax...

Something startled him awake. He wasn't sure if he had been truly sleeping or not, but whatever had made his eyes fly open, it was silent and invisible. Shinichi stared hard. The room was so dark it might as well have been a blank canvas, and his imagination had no trouble populating it. He reached back without thinking, groping - and something grabbed his hand.

Shinichi at least managed to muffle his yelp, but he definitely still made a noise because Kaito said, sleepily, "Shinichi? What's wrong?"

And of course, it was him holding Shinichi's hand. Shinichi sighed and rolled back toward Kaito. "Nothing. Go to sleep."

"Mm," Kaito agreed, also turning inward so that he was facing Shinichi and nuzzling closer. "Did the bad movie scare you?" he asked, laughter in his tone. Shinichi didn't answer and Kaito's eyes opened. "Oh my - it _did,_ didn't it?"

"Shut up. I'm not scared, it's just..." Just, there could be a ghost girl, face covered in a mess of black hair, crawling across his bedroom floor _right now_. He cast an involuntary glance over his shoulder, then sighed when he realized what he had done. "Ok, so, plot holes and fallacies aside, I _guess_ , _maybe_ , there are some things that stick in the subconscious as inherently scary," he said.

"Uh huh," Kaito said, skeptical. "Here." He rolled Shinichi over so that he was facing the edge of the bed again and pulled him tight against his chest. "Better?" he murmured.

"Yeah," Shinichi said, but Kaito could still feel the tension in his body. So he waited.

Eventually Shinichi's voice floated out of the darkness, hushed, and Kaito could tell Shinichi wasn't sure if Kaito was still awake. "Hey Kaito?" it said.

"Hmm?"

"Tell me a story."

"What?" That was a new one.

"I just need to give my brain something else to do."

"All right then," Kaito said. "Um... once upon a time there was a scathingly brilliant detective who nevertheless needed the help of a handsome and daring thief to solve the best cases--"

"It's not going to work if it's a story I already _know_ , Kaito," Shinichi said, though Kaito could hear his smile in the words.

"All right, all right. Hmm." This was hard. Who could just come up with stories on the fly? Well, he could, actually, he was really good at it, but it was a little different when he wasn't trying to talk his way out of something. What could he come up with now that would distract the over-thinking, over-analytical, completely adorable doofus in his arms? "Ok, how's this? Once upon a time... Mr. Smith was found dead in a locked room." Kaito could practically _feel_ Shinichi's attention sharpen.

"Oh? Did Mr. Smith have any enemies? How did he die?"

"I'm getting to it! Mr. Smith, as it turns out, was the possessor of a large fortune in... um... purebred poodles."

"Who inherits the poodles?"

"Will you let me tell the story?"

Shinichi did. He listened to Kaito weave the highly improbable story of Mr. Smith the poodle breeder and his four bickering grandchildren, his extremely attractive neighbor, the groundskeeper, three conflicting wills that all appeared to be authentic, a secret passage, and a cactus. The cactus turned out to be the key. Mr. Smith, Kaito explained, had a deadly cactus allergy.

By the time he was done with the tale, Shinichi could barely keep his eyes open and was drowsing contentedly on Kaito's arm. That arm was quickly losing feeling, but Kaito didn't mind in the least. When Kaito finally announced that the second youngest grandchild had done it, Shinichi nodded and said, in a sleep-slurred voice, "I knew it," followed slowly by, "I love you."

Kaito smiled at the back of Shinichi's head and kissed it, because why not. "I know," he said. Both detective and thief drifted off towards sleep.

 

 

 

 

...until...

 

"Wait, were you using a _Star Wars_ quote on me?"

"Always."

"And was that a _Harry Potter_ quote?"

"You're very smart. Now shut up."

"You know we could have watched _any_ of those movies instea-mmph!"

A rustling of bedsheets, a slight fumbling in the dark, a breathless laugh...

"What movie was _that_ from?"

"Hmm, a little _Spiderman_ , a little _Titanic_ , a little _Night of the Living Dead_."

"...that's... surprisingly accurate, actually. Do you really--"

"Go to _sleep_ , Shinichi."

 

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is not a continuation, it's the other take on the prompt. ("Prompt." Also known as "solomonara texting DragonSorceress randomly in the middle of the night" which is close enough.)


	2. The Things that Go Bump in the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "So which do you think loves horror movies and which is actually terrified of them?"  
> As it turns out, the two of us had differing opinions on this. So here are two different fics, in no particular order. You may guess which is whose.

_The Things that Go Bump in the Night_  


 

_“Come on, ghosts aren’t real.”_

_“Aah!”_

_“What is he screaming about?”_

_“Blood! It’s blood!”_

_“Where’s it coming from?”_

_“Oh god, the ceiling! Look at the ceiling!”_

_“AAAAAAH!”_

Kaito stared wide-eyed at the TV screen and grabbed another distracted handful of popcorn and M&Ms from the bowl beside him. His feet were pulled up onto the edge of the couch, a pillow squeezed between his legs and his chest as the clock in the Kudous’ darkened sitting room edged toward 4AM. He was alone in the large old house, waiting for Shinichi to come home from his latest case – a grisly set of break-in serial murders that had been reaching a fever pitch in Beika. But he wasn’t worried, of course. Shinichi had seemed confident enough when he’d left.

Kaito jumped a little at a sudden _bang_ from the movie, and drew his legs in tighter as a ghostly figure slowly emerged from the bloody ceiling with a manic, upside-down grin. He only tore his eyes from the screen for a few moments to cast a quick glance at the ceiling above him in the TV light.

The ceiling gave an answering _thump._

Kaito froze.

_“It’s coming,”_ the movie whispered and Kaito reached blindly for the remote, turning the volume down a little and staring up at the ceiling again.

Another _thump_ , just as loud as before, and Kaito jolted to his feet, still clutching the pillow. _What the hell is_ that _?!_

Making a conscious effort to calm himself, he set the pillow down and looked toward the doorway that led into the dark foyer where the light of the TV did not reach. There was another _thump_ from the ceiling and Kaito let out a quiet whine.

“You better not be a ghost,” he murmured under his breath, pulling out the card gun and creeping into the foyer.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the faint light from the windows as he started up the stairs. Halfway up he paused, swallowing hard as faint screams carried through the house from the movie.

_“What do you want?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?! AAAAH!”_

Kaito pretended not to hear the _squelch_ and _splat_ and wordless shrieks that followed. Another _thump_ sounded from somewhere down the upstairs hall.

“Why’s he gotta live in a creepy old mansion anyway?” Kaito groaned softly to himself as he edged the rest of the way up the stairs and into the hallway where the pale light from the foyer windows didn’t reach. He slowed, footsteps silent as he neared a new, sort of shuffling sound.

_Here,_ he thought, finding a knob in the dark. _It’s behind this door…_

He stood frozen with his hand on the knob for a few quick heartbeats. Then one last _thump_ sounded inside and Kaito shoved open the door, shouting wordlessly as the rapid-fire from his card gun carved little nicks in the opposite window.

“Hey, hey, Kaito, what the hell?!” Shinichi shouted, ducking out of the way with his hands covering his head. Kaito stopped shooting immediately.

“Shinichi?!” He reached over and flicked on the lights. “How did you get up here? There’s no way I wouldn’t have heard you come in.”

Shinichi scoffed. “I’m surprised you _didn’t_. That’s a lot harder than you make it look,” he said, glancing back at the window.

Kaito blinked at him then looked around. The curtains were badly skewed and several large, heavy-looking books were scattered on the floor around the bed and nearby nightstand. Dirt scuffed the window frame in incomplete patterns that seemed to match the shoes Shinichi was wearing. “Did you… climb through that window?”

“Yes,” Shinichi replied unhappily.

“ _Why_?!”

“Because I forgot I changed the locks and I took the wrong key. If I’d known you were here I would’ve just knocked.”

Kaito strode into the room and punched Shinichi’s arm, nearly knocking him over as he was pulling off his shoes.

“Ow! Hey!”

“You scared me!” Kaito said, staring at Shinichi with an unhappy frown and somewhat pitiful wide eyes.

“I _scared_ you?” Shinichi repeated. He was already pulling the curtains closed and stripping off his shirt, reaching for his pajamas with a yawn.

“Oh no you don’t,” Kaito said, grabbing his arm and pulling him into the hallway. “I wanna see the end of that movie and _you’re_ gonna watch it with me.”

“I– Wait– But– Can’t I put a shirt on first?”

“No.”

He dragged Shinichi downstairs and pushed him toward the couch. Shinichi barely managed to move the popcorn bowl to the coffee table before Kaito shoved him onto the cushions. Then he suddenly had a thief tucked under his arm – Kaito was curled up at his side, the remote in his hand and his head resting against Shinichi’s chest.

“…Did you catch the serial killer?” he asked as he skipped back to a previous scene in the movie.

“I just figured out where she was hiding,” Shinichi said, resigned and settling in to let his fingers move with steady repetition through Kaito’s hair. “Megure-keibu sent a team in to actually arrest her.”

“That’s good.” He turned the volume up just in time for some ghostly wailing to reverberate through the sitting room. Shinichi scoffed.

“You know these movies are awful, right? They’re totally unrealistic.”

“Where’s the fun in a realistic movie?” Kaito answered.

Shinichi just shook his head. As the movie played and the ghost emerged from the ceiling again, Kaito glanced up.

“…Hey, Shinichi? Do you think ghosts could be real?”

“Of course not,” Shinichi replied. “Oh come on!” he added, eyes still on the TV. “There’s no way blood would splatter like that!”

Kaito smiled and pushed himself a little closer against Shinichi, looping an arm around his waist. _Well, if Akako is right and strong disbelief can act as a ward, I guess I’m safest right here._

“Hey, Kaito, don’t tell me you’re still scared,” Shinichi said, looking down at where Kaito was clinging to him.

“Hm, no,” Kaito murmured. “Not anymore~”

“Hmph. Stupid thief,” Shinichi said with a smile.

“Snobby critic,” Kaito shot back with a grin.

_“OH GOD WHY?!”_ the movie screeched, and Shinichi and Kaito settled in, laughing, to watch the clichéd end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is wondering, the M&Ms in the popcorn that turned up in both fics was _not_ discussed beforehand. These things do happen. :)


End file.
